, 1887-06-30
JOAQUIN MILLER.
He TELLS OF THE ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF SHASTA.

0'O' ~ ~ FNSa>-O VI vi iFNO ~
He Would Not Settle in That Land In
less He Could BE Sure of n Good Sup
ply of Water-The Hills Better Than
the Valleys.
Special Corresronjencel
In this letter I must leave out mvself
and tell you of the country, as promised.
This land Is well timbered, and could as we'll
rs not be well watered. 1t IS a singularly fine
place for fruit. Figs grow on many of the
red and rocky hillsideS without the least care
or culture. l once found an old hermit back
of town in the hills, who gave HE bowl of
milk and plate of dried figs This, he as
sured me, was his only food. His cow feeds
on the wild oats that grow up and down the
gulch, and the figs grow in rank abundance,
always with profusion of grapes about his
cabin door He cures his figs simply by
tying them up i'll a bag, and turning the bag
over few times as it lies the long, hot
autumn month drying on the stone wall be-
fore the cabin. But all kinds of fruit, from
oranges to apples, do well in Shasta county.
l must explain that there is as yet no cannery
here, and SO the demand for fruit is merely
local and of little commercial account Still
cannery IS only a question of time This
canning Is sort of Wall street establish
ment. That is, 1t gives solid and certain
value to all sorts of fruit soon as it is estab-
lished. For example, 1 had friend in Oak
land, or near there, the other day, who was
in need of n little money. He went to one of
the fruit canneries and cashed lis fruit as
readily as if it had been a check, selling it at
so much an acre. And, mind you, this is be-
fore the trees are yet i'll blossom. These can
neries referred to send their produce direct to
Chicago.
Land here is cheap. I bought G4O acres
within a few miles of this spot for 81 80 per
acre last year. l bought of the railroad,
paying only 20 per cent. down. There is
plenty Of other land as cheap and Just as
good TO be had on tine same terms. think.
And there is plenty of land to be had of pri-
vate individuals at very reasonable rates
For Shasta is but thiniy settled, there having
Eeen no market here for anything since the
mines gradually melted away. But this
new road now, pointing straight to Oregon,
and on the eve of completion, viii give a new
turn to affairs here, and that right soon.
II l were 90 advise you with regard to
seeking land here / would suggest that YOU
lug the hills rather closely. There is a little
malaria down III the rich lands in the lower
part of the country. True, the hills are hard
to handle, being stony and often covered
with chaparral, but they are rich and the
very land for fruit and vines. The land that
l have bought is steep and iD places very
stony, but l am sure there is future in it
for many families if 1 can only settle the
place up with industrious and contented
people vino are willing to plant and wait.
We are on the extreme limit of the thermal
belt to the north. Both the latitude and the
altitude forbid that fruit of the warmer
clilnes, CT the finer kinds of grapes, can grow
to perfection north of this spot. And so you
ste MI OREGON, Washington Territory and
Montana and Idaho as well will have TO be
supph, fro;n California. And as this is the
nearest point OF California to these places
you can scs the argument for planting fruit
III Shasta without any further statement Of
uIiIIe.
There are a great many cattle in the foot
hills here, and hogs flourish wonderfully. For
the whole country is sown with scattered
forests Of acorn bearing oaks. But, as said
before there has been no market for anything
here for nearly quarter of a century; so
that this part of California las langIished
greatly and is far behind other parts of the
state that have 10 better natural advantages
than Shasta.
But must repeat, and feel like repeating 1t
over AHA ever again, thatif you CONC te7 te sat=.
tie here you must first be certain that you
have, or can get, plenty of good water on
your grounds For l don't want your blame
On my head when you are scorched to death
in August and September. And let me warn
you also against trusting too much to appear
ances here in the spring. The truth is this
Shasta is & firt, and will deceive almost any
man who does not know "her tricks and her
manners" of old. For example, in March,
= l. IL
roses. The whole mountain sides, every little
hill and every little valley is glorious with
waving green grass and beautiful blue and
yellow and red blossoms. 1t looks like an
Eden; the air is so sweet you can feed upon
it. You feel at such times that you have
surely found the Promised Land. But wait.
Along i'll July the grass begins to turn brown.
IN August it is literally burned black, In Sep
teInber the ground fairly gIows from the
heat Every little gulch and creek and canyon
that has not living water in il is q fiery fur
mace. But with water, what garden man
can make here i'll this soil with all this fervid
sun at his back!
Taking it all in all, I should say, with this
certain precautiOn about water, that Shasta
county Is about the best part of the world
that L have passed over on this trip to settle
in, especially if n man is alone and not full
or rich men could operate nearly SO well here
NJ in the broad, rich lands of Arizona in the
region of Fort Bowie, which have previously
described.
Fish here are abundant and of the best.
San Francisco takes tons of mountain trout
every year from these cool, sweet mountain
streams, and yet the trout seem only to in
crease The government has established
"hatchery" here for the purpose of procuring
the eggs of trout and salmon. 1t may not be
generally known that up to a recent date our
government was in the habit of procuring all
its fish eggs from Canada.
Did you ever see them milk" the eggs from
the fish. 1t is so curious and yet so simple
that viii tell you briefly how it is done.
large female salmon, conspicuous!y large from
the great abundance of eggs she contains, Is
taken from the river with net, then Il man
takes her by the tail and lays her back up along
his bare arm and with his right hand miiis
stream after stream of bright golden eggs
into wooden tub. After taking many
pounds of eggs in this way the fish is dropped
back into the river, ard she sWiTS away good
naturally, as if rather glad of what has hap
pened. Then male fish is taken up with the
net from out the river where Gsh SO
thick that you can literally stir them with q
stick" And the same process is gone through
with the father OF IISileS. Unly instead OF eggs
there is merely milky fluid called ''mi!t."
Then he is Topped back into the river also and
goes his way. Then the man reaches his broad
hand and big arm down into the wooden tub
and stirs the eggs and Hlilt about; and that is
all. They are ''impregnated" now and ready
to be put up in layers of moss and sent thus
al over the world. The man in charge of
the hatchery told me that not one egg i'll
100 thus prepared and sent abroad would fail
to hatch: while in truth, by the natural pro-
cess in the streams where fish are left to
themselves, only about one egg in 900 ever
comes to anything. 1t makes one want to
stop and thinkl JOAQUIN MILLER